The purpose of this apparatus is to provide football coaches at all levels with an apparatus that will allow them daily to develop certain sophisticated skills in offensive running backs and offensive linemen. So far as it is presently known, no piece of apparatus exists which will provide this function. The drills alluded to above are presently conducted in a very high risk situation, often resulting in both temporary and sustained injuries to players.
The specific need which the apparatus provides is probably best demonstrated with the following example: "You can't teach that", which is frequently heard on any live TV broadcast of a pro-football game. It is also heard just as frequently at the high school and college level. What the remark generally refers to is a running back's looking for daylight. This desirable ability has always been accepted by coaches as being "instinctive" or "innate" in the athlete. Consequently, if a single piece of equipment can instill or improve upon this skill, a considerable contribution would have been made to the sport.
At the time, the only means by which such training is available to the coach who wishes to attempt to increase skillful running habits in his backs involves "live" drills, and, as mentioned above, such drills often result in players being injured. Even more important to the coaches of young players--junior varsity, etc.--this apparatus provides them with an opportunity to develop skillful running and player confidence prior to placing their young players into the "live" portion of the daily practices.
A modified form of this invention was tested extensively with non-proficient male high school students. The results demonstrated rather conclusively both the role of practice and motivation which tends to operate in the training situation. These subjects were in no way agile or accomplished in running back skills. However, within four days, a significant trend was well established.
Presently, the limits of the apparatus to produce eventual game success will require at least a year or two of observation and reports from various coaches about the country. However, a considerably less effective method was employed in the Fall of 1977, which did produce observable improvements in the running of our high school backs.
Another elusive skill in which coaches are forced to resort to "live" drills is the picking up of stunt-blocking. The invention is aligned in such a position as to readily simulate a slanting or looping defensive lineman or a firing linebacker. Again, the player is spending extended periods in "live" drills. In other words, coaches are able to spend more time in effective "dummy" work and less time in actual contact work, and still they can produce a more skillful player.
A need exists within the sport of American Football to provide a training apparatus which will greatly facilitate the ultimate efficiency of offensive running backs. Currently, there are neither sufficient apparata nor efficient techniques for developing these skills other than "live" activities which, especially with the young player, must be entered into most judiciously. It is believed that this proposed apparatus would provide daily drills which would promote the desired skills without incurring a high risk to the athlete himself.
The player-simulating dummies are of lightweight, easily compressible material, yieldably suspended on a movable bar connected to a manually operable control bar manipulatable by the coach or trainer. The defensive player-simulating control bar is pivotally suspended at one end of a horizontally movable rod and a coach or trainer manually operable control bar is pivotally suspended at the other end of such rod. Pulleys are provided on the pivoted suspension of the bars and are connected by a cable so that the coach can rotate his pulley and thus rotate the defensive player-simulating dummy carrying pulley. The rod is horizontally movable for a limited distance, in a tube, so that the trainer may move it back or forth as well as rotate the dummies. In addition, the dummies may be tilted by manipulating the trainer-control handle accordingly. Other connecting means, such as a rod and gears at each end may also be used for the coach or trainer to control the dummies.